Fulham 0 - 0 Sunderland

Fulham v Sunderland: Preview

Updated: October 17, 2008, 4:02 PM UK

Roy Hodgson believes David Healy can still make an impact in the Barclays Premier League - despite allowing him to leave Fulham.

Northern Ireland striker Healy joined tomorrow's opponents Sunderland for £1.2million over the summer after spending much of his time at Craven Cottage on the bench.

The 28-year-old has a prolific international record of 34 goals in 64 games that he failed to emulate at Fulham.

Hodgson, who has Andrew Johnson available from suspension but is without Andranik Teymourian (knee) and Dickson Etuhu (match fitness), believes Healy's difficulty transferring that success is due to the level of competition in the Premiership but insists regular first team football could spark a change in fortune.

"It's a slightly different game international football to Premiership football,'' he said.

"The Premier League has an intensity that very few international matches can match up to.

"It wasn't easy for him to come into the team last season. We were struggling, battling for our lives.

"Perhaps he needs to be in a situation where it's more stable and maybe Sunderland is able to give him that this year.

"His international goalscoring record is very good and if he starts scoring then there's no reason he can't do that in the Premier League.

"He's a very good finisher and he knows how to score goals. He knows where the goal is and he can finish.

"Strikers need the confidence of their coach and need to know that if they have a bad game, they won't be put on the bench next week.

"David didn't get it here and I can only hope he gets it at Sunderland.''

Hodgson has no qualms over offloading Healy to a club that could potentially be fighting against Fulham for survival.

"I'm not worried about him scoring for a rival,'' he said.

"You can't hoard players and stop them from moving on simply because you're afraid they'll do something at that club which can cause you a problem.

"It may work the other way - we may need Sunderland to do us a favour one day with David scoring the goal.''

Sunderland midfielder Teemu Tainio is in contention for a return after missing the last three games for his club with a shoulder injury.

Nyron Nosworthy (hamstring), Kenwyne Jones and Martyn Waghorn (both knee) are all back in training, but will not be involved at Craven Cottage, while Dwight Yorke's exertions with Trinidad and Tobago mean he is unlikely to be selected.

Sunderland boss Roy Keane is not allowing himself to get too excited about the prospect of unleashing Djibril Cisse and Kenwyne Jones as a partnership.

Jones is back in training after suffering knee ligament damage on international duty against England in June, and has an outside chance of making next weekend's Wear-Tyne derby clash with Newcastle.

The 24-year-old Trinidad and Tobago star has been sorely missed following an impressive first season in the top flight which prompted Keane to value him at £40million rather than the £6million he paid for him.

But his absence has been countered to some extent by the arrival of loan signing Cisse, a man whose ability has marked him out as rare talent since his early days in the game.

The Frenchman turned in an excellent performance as a lone frontman in the 1-1 draw with Arsenal a fortnight ago, and could be employed in similar fashion at Fulham tomorrow.

However, the prospect of them two men joining forces within weeks is an appetising one for Keane, although he is taking nothing for granted.

The Irishman said: "I am not really excited yet. I will be pleased when Kenwyne is back in the first-team fold.

"I suppose punters out there or media will automatically think it's a dream partnership, but sometimes it doesn't work out that way.

"We believe when Kenwyne is fit and with our other strikers, they can be a handful.

"Sometimes you are only as good as your goalscorers. You see that with a lot of teams, you see that with a lot of international teams.

"If you have got somebody capable of putting the ball in the back of the net, my God, it makes a hell of a difference to you.

"But again, we all have to be patient. Kenwyne has been out for a long time. We can't expect him to come back and hit the ground running.

"But we have got a busy time ahead and if he is available for us, like young Martyn Waghorn, those two lads have got a good chance of being involved over the next few months.

"But it might need two or three reserve games for them.''

The impending returns of Jones and teenager Waghorn today led to Republic of Ireland striker Anthony Stokes being sent out on loan to Coca-Cola Championship Sheffield United.